Wigan Album
ince stn
10 CommentsPhoto: RON HUNT
Item #: 33650
Ince station childrens outings to Southport, organised by Higher or Lower Ince Labour club.
I bet they all had a ten shilling note in their pockets to spend.
Running down the main line
Shaking off the pain
Heading for a bright time
Waiting for a train
Fish and chips in a cafe and ten bob in a little brown envelope to spend at Southport, buying little plastic heart-shaped brooches with our name on. I was 14 the last time I went on a Labour Club Trip. The juke-box in the fun-house played "A Whiter Shade of Pale" non-stop all afternoon and we stood watching the lads and girls being spun round on a disc, faster and faster, before being thrown off it. . A big fat lad, (we didn't have to say "circumferentially challenged" in those days....he was just fat!), was flung off and hit me straight in the eye! By next morning my eye was as black as the ace of spades, (we were allowed to say that too before the world went soft!), and I have never heard "A Whiter Shade of Pale" since without remembering Southport Fun House!
Just behind Ince Station towards St William’s Church, there was a row of houses, at the end of which was The Conquering Hero pub, always shortened to The Conquer. From Ince Green Lane you had to go down stone steps to them. If you were down on the other side of Ince Green Lane, there was a tunnel to get through to the Conquer.
It was The Grove, Albert S. where The Conquer was. The steps and the tunnel are still there.
It wasn't exactly a tunnel - it was the bridge over the Ince Hall Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Its line back to the canal can still be traced. It was obviously still in use when the railway and bridge were built - so an extra span had to be built to accommodate it. Then two bridges had to be built to carry the railway over it - one immediately after it crossed Ince Green Lane - and then another when it took a right-angle turn towards Ince Hall Colliery - for which it had been built. In the angle were a couple of short rows of terraced housing - which became known as The Viaducts because of the two canal bridges, and the later one built to the south of the second one to carry the Springs Branch Line. If I remember rightly, there was also a bridge under the railway line to give access to those houses. I'll send an Old Map to Albums to give a clearer picture.
You're right, Rev, David, it wasn't a tunnel as such ....but that's just what we called it in Ince. I have just had a study of the map you have put on and it brings back many memories. A note to the ladies of Wigan World.... Going back to those heart-shaped brooches with our names on which we bought every year on our trips to Southport, I believe you can still buy them in seaside resorts, but the names "Irene", "Kathleen" and "Linda" will now have been replaced with "Kylie", "Chardonnay" and " Ellie". However, the old names are coming back and my granddaughter is "Edie"!.
Yes Reverend there was a bridge that you went under to reach the Viaducts. I remember as a youngster visiting my grandma’s you could climb up to the top of the supporting brickwork, and lie in between the bridge girders, and the brickwork as the train went over. You knew no dangers as children. No rhyme nor reason why we did it.